AG COMPASSION EFFORTS NOTED. “A New Kind of Pentecostal”:

Though Pentecostals have demonstrated an accelerated interest in social issues, especially in North America, Pentecostalism has never abandoned social concern. One of the longest-standing social efforts has been Teen Challenge (TeenChallengeusa.com). Established in 1958 by the late Assemblies of God minister David Wilkerson, Teen Challenge is the oldest, largest, and most successful drug rehabilitation program of its kind, with 233 centers in the U.S. and over 1,100 centers in 82 countries with some 25,000 beds available for people in need. Scholars debate how to count and compare its recovery rate with that of similar ministries, but all agree that it’s no less than that of Alcoholics Anonymous, and much better than that of many secular programs. A vital part of the recovery process is prayer for conversion and baptism in the Holy Spirit: an infilling of the believer subsequent to conversion and accompanied by ecstatic signs (glossolalia, or speaking in tongues, is the sign most often cited).

Another longstanding Pentecostal outreach is Latin American Childcare (lacc4hope.org). Founded in 1963, it is the largest integrated network of evangelical schools in Latin America and the Caribbean, incorporating 300 schools and projects that reach nearly 100,000 children in 21 countries. The community’s shared vision incorporates “transformation” through the gospel of words and deeds, “education” through equipping children with knowledge and skills for real-life contexts, and “compassion” through nutrition and health-care programs. All of this is designed “to equip them with basic skills for competing in, and transforming, their society.”

Pentecostalism now incorporates some 600 million worldwide in its various expressions, a fourth of all Christendom.

Still, social action has “very definitely” taken on a new role among Pentecostals and their churches today, says Assemblies of God general superintendent George O. Wood. He oversaw a crucial change at the organization’s 2009 national convention in Orlando. Wood says, “The AG in 2009 added ‘compassion’ as the fourth element for its reason for being—in recognition that Jesus came to glorify God (worship), save the lost, make disciples, but also serve human need. The AG has entree into 80 countries that would [otherwise] be closed to traditional missionaries, but are open to compassion workers. Our churches increasingly have focused on the poor in practical ways: food banks, Adopt-A-Block, mentoring programs for children of prisoners, assistance to single mothers, and so on.”

Two recent expressions of Pentecostal social concern are the Los Angeles-based Dream Center Movement (see below) and Convoy of Hope (ConvoyofHope.org), a Springfield, Missouri, faith-based organization with a “driving passion to feed the world through children’s feeding initiatives, community outreaches, disaster response, and partner resourcing.” In 2010, Convoy brought aid to nearly eight million people in the United States and worldwide, providing clothing, food, medical assistance, and other needed resources via outreaches and disaster response.

In its 16 years of service, Convoy of Hope has helped over 43 million people in more than 100 countries, and given away over $227 million in food and needed supplies. This movement has joined forces with churches, businesses, and government agencies to carry out the Convoy mission. Currently, over 88,000 children receive assistance from Convoy’s feeding initiatives in El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Kenya, Nicaragua, and the Philippines.

Convoy of Hope is considered a reliable “first responder” organization in disaster relief. Its resources include a fleet of tractor-trailers, a 300,000-square-foot World Distribution Center (based in Springfield), six international distribution centers, over 22,000 partner churches and organizations, and over 325,000 volunteers. Convoy has responded to the recent natural disasters in Japan, Missouri, and Alabama.

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NO ONE, I HOPE. “Whom Would Jesus Indebt?”

So make no mistake: the Budget Control Act doesn’t put a dent in the mountain of debt our government has accrued.  If the commitments of the BCA are fulfilled, then we will add to that mountain at a slightly-less-manic pace than before, but the very purpose of the act was to enable the big Beltway spenders to make the mountain bigger.  Worse, the BCA leaves completely unchanged the social and political dynamics that have led to this debt in the first place.  Our political elite are addicted to spending.  It’s how they curry favor, it’s how they win elections, and it’s how they exercise and enjoy their power.  They’re perfectly willing to borrow money to feed the addiction, because they have a credit card.  The name on the credit card is: You and Your Children.

One of the great difficulties of this issue, for Christians, is that the morality of spending and debt has been so thoroughly demagogued that it’s impossible to advocate cuts in government spending without being accused of hatred for the poor and needy.  A group calling itself the “Circle of Protection” recently promoted a statement on “Why We Need to Protect Programs for the Poor.”  But we don’t need to protect the programs.  We need to protect the poor.  Indeed, sometimes we need to protect the poor from the programs.  Too many anti-poverty programs are beneficial for the politicians that pass them, and veritable boondoggles for the government bureaucracy that administers them, but they actually serve to rob the poor of their dignity and their initiative, they undermine the family structures that help the poor build prosperous lives, and ultimately mire the poor in poverty for generations.  Does anyone actually believe that the welfare state has served the poor well?

It is immoral to ignore the needs of the least of these.  But it’s also immoral to ’serve’ the poor in ways that only make more people poor, and trap them in poverty longer.  And it’s immoral to amass a mountain of debt that we will pass on to later generations.  I even believe it’s immoral to feed the government’s spending addiction.  Since our political elites have demonstrated such remarkably poor stewardship over our common resources, it would be foolish and wrong to give them more resources to waste.  What we need are political leaders committed to prudence and thrift, to wise and far-sighted stewardship, and to spurring a free and thriving economy that will encourage the poor and all Americans to seize their human dignity as creatures made in the image of God, to be fruitful and take initiative and express their talents and creativity.

In this vein, read “Letter to the President” by Christians for a Sustainable Economy (CASE).

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YEP: “America: A Great and Flawed Nation”:

In the end, the history of the United States, like the history of any nation, is a mixed bag. There are moments that inspire us to express the deepest forms of patriotism and love of country. There are moments as well that cause us to hang our collective heads in shame.

So what are Christians to do? How do we live as members of the Kingdom of God and citizens of this great and flawed nation? I think the answer is simple: work for the Kingdom of God regardless of whether we live in a Christian nation or have ever lived in a Christian nation. The first-century church understood this. They sacrificed their lives to advance the Kingdom of God in a Roman empire that was, at least for the first several 100 years, anything but a Christian empire.

So let’s be proud of our American heritage but, more importantly, let’s be diligent in remembering that our highest calling as Christians is to be faithful members of the Kingdom of God. As Jesus put it, “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.”

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YES, PLEASE! “Overcoming the Obstacles to Faith-Based Approaches to Crime”:

Unfortunately, there are formidable obstacles that must be confronted before this can happen. On the one hand, there will be those who will outright reject such a possibility over concerns of proselytizing, violating church-state separation, and the lack of sufficient evidence to support the notion that faith-based approaches really work. The real reason so many will oppose faith-based approaches and partnerships, however, has little to do with these concerns. In an age of political correctness, one of the last acceptable prejudices is one regularly leveled against the involvement of highly religious people and their faith-based approaches to social problems.

…

On the other hand, though this prejudice against religion and faith-based approaches is a primary culprit in hindering progress we could otherwise be making, it is by no means the only prejudice that prevents faith-based groups from partnering with secular and governmental entities to reduce crime. Many religious individuals and groups hold biases against secular organizations and the government that both discourage and prevent potential partnerships from forming; many within faith-based organizations little trust government programs or secular agencies. As a result, these faith-based organizations operate in isolation of other faith-based social service providers, and therefore they become insular and remain limited in what they can achieve. There is a sense in which they do not trust those they consider outsiders.

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OUCH! “Hipster Pharisees”:

Sure they had me at first. I had fantastical visions of going to church in jeans and a t-shirt. It felt like an attempt to shed the “old” ways of the baby boomers and finally find a comfy place to lay my tush in church (because who ever thought pews were comfortable anyway?). But as soon as the initial excitement of electric guitars and flashy lights started to fade, I quickly realized that, like finding a sheep in wolves clothing, they had hidden the same old post-seventies, right-wing hijacked reinterpretation of Christianity behind converses and a V-neck. There I was, sans-heels, listening to the same thing I had grown up with. I guess even the isolating tendencies of gender essentialism and white privilege can seem cool in a shiny new package.

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NO DUH! “Air Force: Bible and nukes don’t mix.” For a different perspective, take a look at “Angry Atheists Strike Again”:

Our military is comprised of hundreds of thousands of Christians and thousands of members of other faiths (and thousands of atheists as well). They come from different intellectual and spiritual traditions, and the government is emphatically not “serving” them when it essentially acts as if they — or their ideas — don’t exist.

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YES, I CAN! “Can You Imagine?”

In short, our problem is not an overactive imagination. The real threat is a lack of imagination, or an imagination stunted or misshaped by our experience. Through Scripture and the creative work of fellow pilgrims we can develop a hearty imagination that will help us believe and embody the gospel of Christ in our day.

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IF YOU HAFTA EXPLAIN IT, IT DIDN’T MAKE SENSE IN THE FIRST PLACE. “Congressman explains debt deal is a ‘sugar coated Satan sandwich.’”

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ARE THOSE MY ONLY CHOICES? “Thomas Kinkade vs. Modern Art.”